What is the most pressing need you are facing as a church?  On Tuesday, July 23rd over 2,000 church leaders were part of a free webinar put on by The Rocket Company.  During this time together, COO Michael Lukaszewski asked the attendees to tweet the greatest need they were facing.  The answers were surprising.  BTW, you can hear an On Demand replay of this session by clicking here.

I was expecting the top responses to be about vision, mission, giving, discipleship, or even senior pastors.  While many of those items were mentioned, they were far outpaced by one specific need in the church.

It was a rare opportunity to hear from church leaders directly about their greatest needs.  The following were the first 14 responses taken straight from Twitter.  For those of us called to serve those in ministry, this is enlightening information.

Each person listed has their real name along with their Twitter handle.

  1. Marc Sundstrom ‏@MarcSundstrom2m –The biggest systems need at Southridge Church is ASSIMILATION.
  2. Jason Ewart ‏@JasonEwart142s – Our church needs a stronger volunteer training system
  3. Allison Yankey ‏@ayankette46s – Communication
  4. Scott Puckett ‏@mscottpuckett43s – We need help with an assimilation plan for incorporating new people into the life of the church.
  5. Michael Campbell ‏@revmikecampbell56s – My church needs basic foundational structure.
  6. Christwalk Church ‏@TheChristwalk – Here the thing we the most work on his giving and foundational structure. We’re growing but we don’t really have systems.
  7. Mark Ashley ‏@RevMashley – Top systems needs are recruiting and training volunteers.
  8. Tim Bistline ‏@timbistline – Faith based budget and finances. 
  9. Rev. Allen Erdman ‏@John1Ministries – The thing we need the most work on is youth ministry!
  10. Adam Gronwald ‏@adamgronwald – Ours is personal discipleship.
  11. Joel Philbrook ‏@jphilbrook1m – Volunteer Recruitment
  12. James Franklin ‏@j_d_franklin – We need a better system for welcoming newcomers/seekers.
  13. meghan howard ‏@revhoward18 – At our church @FairbornUMC good systems for volunteers and small groups.
  14. Neil Schori ‏@neilschori – Capturing the hearts of volunteers and “closing the back door.”

These 14 responses mention 11 different areas of ministry.  However, volunteer needs were mentioned 6 times.  This was by far the most of any group.

The enlistment, training, connecting, and retaining of volunteers was the top need of the church leaders we heard from today.  Can you relate?

If volunteers are an area of need at your church, I am going to help you right now.  Click here for a free on-demand webinar to learn more about a product called Volunteer Rocket.  

Volunteer Rocket is absolutely the best volunteer system available for churches.  Nothing will better help you gain, train, and retain the volunteers in your ministry.

I want to hear from you also.  What is the most pressing need you are facing as a church?

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